Principal Investigator

Philip J. Bergmann

Associate Professor of Biology

Current Students

Gen Morinaga

PhD Candidate

September 2012 - Present

Gen is broadly interested in convergent evolution, or the evolution of similar traits among distantly related organisms. His research in particular focuses on the evolution of snake-like body shape among lizards, and how this body shape affects ecology and locomotion.

Amy Cheu

PhD Student

August 2015 - Present

Amy is interested in how multiple phenotypes affect multiple aspects of performance by examining the complex relationships between interacting traits and their functions in an organism. She is currently working with basilisk lizards and integrating functional morphology, comparative biomechanics, muscle physiology, and statistics.

Erika Schaper

September 2014 - Present

Erika is an undergraduate student studying microhabitat use and diet of Philippines skinks. By quantitatively analyzing the living and non-living components of their environment, she hopes to draw conclusions about their morphological adaptations as well as their degree of habitat preference.

David Berry

September 2015 - Present

David is an undergraduate student that is using mechanical models to study how head shape affects burrowing performance. The mechanical models represent the range of diversity of head shapes that have evolved in burrowing lizards. The models allow David to manipulate the diameter, slope of the snout, and how pointy the snout is independently. He uses the models to study how these variables affect how easily the model heads can penetrate different substrates.

Jordan Majka

January 2016 - Present

Jordan is an undergraduate student studying how muscle and limb bone characteristics relate to swimming and jumping in Green Frogs.

Sara Mann

September 2016 - Present

Sara is an undergraduate student studying whether four taxa that have independently evolved snake-like body shapes are convergent in their locomotor patterns.

Lana Le

January 2017 - Present

Lana is an undergraduate student studying swimming in lizards and helping with data collection on the Philipine skink locomotion project.

Kristen Glennie

January 2017 - Present

Kristen is an undergraduate student helping with studies of how substrate affects locomotion.

Samantha Reed

June 2017 - Present

Samantha is an undergraduate student helping to collect locomotor performance and kinematic data from videos of Philippine skinks.

Graduate Student Alumni

Marian Crockett, MS: 5/2014 to 8/2017 - Thesis "The effect of substrate unevenness and irregularity on locomotor performance and kinematics of curly-tailed lizards"

Faye Harwell, MS: 5/2014 to 7/2016 - Thesis "The effects of body temperature and hydration on thermal and moisture preferences, and jumping performance in three species of frog differing in niche use and degree of relatedness"